I would love to see special NPC 'tavern talks' - perhaps either group talks depending on what Chapter you are on, or one to one talks (and romance talks)... How do other people feel about this?
@Kate_wise that's a great idea. The main obstacle is that Trent has indicated there are strong restrictions on adding new dialogue to the existing characters. A little end of chapter chat/what do we do now party talk would be awesome. They could also try and sell it by arguing it's for greater accessibility and giving players a better indication of what they should be doing/where they should be going.
Wow, many of these comments would be a great addition to the game... I like Space Hamster's idea of a possible bar fight when drinking too much, Kat wise's of NPC dialouges, and Jarl's about gambling. The initial thought about taverns' tips leading you in the direction of (but not blatantly telling you where) treasure is is awesome too. I never thought reading forums could be so much fun!
I would love to see special NPC 'tavern talks' - perhaps either group talks depending on what Chapter you are on, or one to one talks (and romance talks)... How do other people feel about this?
It seems like restricting too many talks to a specific location could cause more problems than it's worth, but at the same time it would be cool to see a few location-specific banters, etc. added throughout the game. So, if done well it seems like it could have potential.
I'm all for improving inns/taverns in general to give them a bit more depth.
I like this idea as it does allow getting drunk to serve a purpose. 1) After enough drinks certain item caches become available when you hear the rumors. There even could be a few 'false' leads in there. 2) I like the bar fights idea as it also adds a risk of drinking a lot to get these caches to appear. Of course, when you're high enough level it is unlikely that a random bar fight will be a problem, but it would still make you feel like you are earning it.
I have always wondered where some of these powerful magic items come from. Like who leaves a tome of charisma in an xvart cave? These 'drinking games' would add a bit of an explanation to why we keep finding all this magical equipment in the middle of nowhere.
i would say at the very least if its completely impossible to incorporate any of these awesome ideas, maybe some alcoholic beverages should give you special bonuses, for example if you drink enough you would be intoxicated for 24 hours but you would get +4 saves vs death or something, or if you maybe another one could make you intoxicated for 24 hours and make you immune to posion, they may not be able to change the scripts and such, but they should be able to add bonuses, make it so intoxication gives you -4 to hit or whatever it supposed to do and make it so the benifit is better than improving morale or some rot, or better yet, do something like this: have in beregost one of the drinks where if you get completely sloshed you get -4 to hit, -2 to AC for 24 hours but you get +4 saves vs death, and then you could go to the area east of beregost ( the one with the temple) and when you go to fight all the wolfies on the very right of the map you have a better chance of not getting parazlyzed by the vampiric wolves, so i dont know if im rambling on but at least make it so getting intoxicated can be meaningful or worthwhile at the very least, i dont think that should conflict with all that "cant change original content" mumbo jumbo
i would say at the very least if its completely impossible to incorporate any of these awesome ideas, maybe some alcoholic beverages should give you special bonuses,
@jaysl659: Actually it could be done simply by having a trigger, 'next time you rest in an inn' start dialogue. You have to have your whole party on station to rest at an inn so it could be relatively simple. Plus you wouldn't need a specific inn. Bit more of a problem for 'pure' taverns though.
I have a small wish from you, it's an important part of the games for me and several other friends I've discussed with.
You have to keep the mood, the ambiance and the spirit of the taverns and inns of the original games.
But how to improve them even further? Add some smaller quests that feel important, in particular in Baldur's Gate. Add to the feeling of them being places where foreigners and locals thrive together? Adding accents and dialects etc. to dialogues in those places? For example pilgrims heading to temples? More "competing" adventurers? In a sense, that some of the larger taverns and inns, like The Friendly Arm Inn, become reflections of the world surrounding the player. I'm not saying it was missing in the games, but of solidifying the impression of such places.
Hey! i made this with photoshop. how this "gamlbing screen" in taverns could look like. The informations for gambling should be stored in an externalised 2da (roulette or other game-graphics, min/max stake, possibility to win and so on)
Thing is, I could swear that there was a comment about a crazy gnome speaking about a ring and running into the wilderness that does estabilish things, but there was no such thing in every one of my BGT playthroughs...
Oh man...I may have to reinstall BG I To confirm. I can't wait to try it out on my iPad though.
Hey, I remember that guy... almost certainly near Nashkeel... give me a moment to google... Ah-hah! His name was Galtok, a gnome you meet near the entrance to Nashkeel mines. He runs to you asking for help, and says he'd been captured and tortured by kobolds, who took everything he had - "my wand, my clothes..." The moment he finishes his story, a band of kobolds appears, and with a dismayed cry, poor Galtok runs away into the woods, chased by the creatures' arrows... It's been commonly speculated that the wand of frost you can find in this area once belonged to him.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, so that is why that wand is there, i always kill gatlok before he can engage dialogue with me so i can steal his 150 xp and his rob of fire resistance, and he might have some gold pieces as well, beats the hell out of the 4 crappy kobolds that come instead
Pubs should be a team building environment. Buying your colleagues a drink should improve your reputation with them. Finding out their favourite drink and aying slighly more should earn greater rewards. Mind you, there could be drawbacks, as a cap on this process, too much drink might reverse the whole process with different team members fighting. There's lots that could be done here.
Being able to listen to bards play songs or do performances would be great. Taverns and bars are really as underutilized resource for cut-scenes and character exposition.
There is a diamond (and I think wand) that you find in the wilderness (wouldn't notice without tab) that you hear about from NPC's, I would imagine the ring would be too.
One thing that perplexes me about the tavern rumors, and I'm probably the only one, but I'm going to just say it. They mention all sorts of things from the Iron Shortage to Ulcaster to Brage to Firewine to bandits, but not one of them, not one, mentions Nexlit the Xvart. It's just a bit obvious to me that his wee little legacy and reknown would've gotten to Beregost by then.
I take it you don't have the infamous Xvart Caverns mod, which did exactly that like ages ago. (Well, very few have it as yet but if you're interested in beta-testing, drop me a line on shsforums.net).
I posted a tutorial on how to add tavern rumours but I don't think anyone's used it yet, apart from Aurora's Shoes (where it came from), perhaps Gavin and of course Xvart Caverns.
As for the easter egg items (magic rings, ankheg armour etc.) - I think a mod as early as Baldurdash dropped hints about them, and possibly BG1 NPC as well. A number of us were against such hint-dropping since they're supposed to be "easter eggs" after all. I think BG1 NPC did it ok with the guy who's trying to jump off a cliff (says something about losing a diamond IIRC).
I agree... Taverns are already places of pleasure and its always nice to get there and enjoy the vibe. However, with the possibility of getting quest,tips and secrets it would be more useful. +1 for me
I had always wished to incite bar huge brawls whilst staying out of it and enjoy the show.
Why can't we just waltz up to some huge guy with small wits and whisper some funny things in his ear, and give him all kinds of "good" reasons to kick some other guest's butt. Please let us have it!
Comments
(@bgplaya And yes, Copper Coronet FTW!)
A special gambling-screen for taverns with some mini-games (roulette, dice...) is a great idea
I'm all for improving inns/taverns in general to give them a bit more depth.
1) After enough drinks certain item caches become available when you hear the rumors. There even could be a few 'false' leads in there.
2) I like the bar fights idea as it also adds a risk of drinking a lot to get these caches to appear. Of course, when you're high enough level it is unlikely that a random bar fight will be a problem, but it would still make you feel like you are earning it.
I have always wondered where some of these powerful magic items come from. Like who leaves a tome of charisma in an xvart cave? These 'drinking games' would add a bit of an explanation to why we keep finding all this magical equipment in the middle of nowhere.
Drunken fist, monk only - automatic while intoxicated. 2 penalty to THAC0 due to double vision, 2 bonus to AC due to unpredictable stumbling!
You have to keep the mood, the ambiance and the spirit of the taverns and inns of the original games.
But how to improve them even further? Add some smaller quests that feel important, in particular in Baldur's Gate. Add to the feeling of them being places where foreigners and locals thrive together? Adding accents and dialects etc. to dialogues in those places? For example pilgrims heading to temples? More "competing" adventurers? In a sense, that some of the larger taverns and inns, like The Friendly Arm Inn, become reflections of the world surrounding the player. I'm not saying it was missing in the games, but of solidifying the impression of such places.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/72/request-make-taverns-more-worthwhile/p1
/sigh
That I did.
i made this with photoshop. how this "gamlbing screen" in taverns could look like. The informations for gambling should be stored in an externalised 2da (roulette or other game-graphics, min/max stake, possibility to win and so on)
http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/3097/bggamble.jpg
Jarl
It's been commonly speculated that the wand of frost you can find in this area once belonged to him.
I posted a tutorial on how to add tavern rumours but I don't think anyone's used it yet, apart from Aurora's Shoes (where it came from), perhaps Gavin and of course Xvart Caverns.
http://www.shsforums.net/topic/50841-how-to-add-rumours/
As for the easter egg items (magic rings, ankheg armour etc.) - I think a mod as early as Baldurdash dropped hints about them, and possibly BG1 NPC as well. A number of us were against such hint-dropping since they're supposed to be "easter eggs" after all. I think BG1 NPC did it ok with the guy who's trying to jump off a cliff (says something about losing a diamond IIRC).
Why can't we just waltz up to some huge guy with small wits and whisper some funny things in his ear, and give him all kinds of "good" reasons to kick some other guest's butt.
Please let us have it!